While we gave Sumana her middle name because it took faith to bring her to our family, we're learning it's HER FAITH that is teaching us lessons every day.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Another step toward surgery

Well, Dr. Sanders wants Sumana to see her neurosurgeon before we schedule her VEPTR surgery. Thankfully, she will get in to see him (the neuro.) next Tuesday. The down side is that nothing will happen for another week after that because Dr. Sanders will be in the Dominican Republic doing spine surgeries on less fortunate kids. (What a gift for them!)

Dr. Silberstein (the neurosurgeon) will check to see if there is any tethering of Sumana's spine that needs to be corrected before the VEPTR surgery. I'm not sure I can explain it very well, but it's a common problem for kids with spina bifida. The spinal cord gets hung up on itself and causes pain or paralysis as the child grows. I'm hopeful that since she has no symptoms, she doesn't have this issue. I feel good, though, to find out for sure ahead of time, not having the surprise of finding it while Dr. Sanders is doing the surgery.

Sumana's Mom

I'm Sumana Faith's mom. She joined our family in June 2004 at the age of 5. She was born in India with spina bifida and has had VEPTR surgery in August 2009 to help improve her lung function and scoliosis curve. I'm also mom to Jeffrey-20, Gretchen-18 and Andrew-15 and wife of 24 years to Greig.